Limited Themes

In an eight-player Draft pod, no matter how you divide up the two-color pairs, some colors will be drafted less than others. We try to mitigate this in most sets by encouraging some three-plus-color decks to make sure that the colors are more evenly divided. With Throne of Eldraine, we took a different approach—we made sure that drafting a monocolor deck could be a reality in most drafts. The adamant mechanic, the quadruple-hybrid-mana-cost uncommons, and higher density of artifacts all make monocolor decks more reasonable. But there are still two-color pair decks. Here's a quick rundown of what each one is trying to accomplish:

* Blue-red is all about drawing your second card in a turn. Many cards trigger or get a bonus if two cards have been drawn in a turn.

* White-blue cares about artifacts and enchantments. Many cards get bonuses if you control one and a double bonus if you control both.

* Black-green has the highest density of Food rewards. Cards key off sacrificing Food or using the Food for other rewards.

* Red-white is about Knights going wide. Red, white, and black all are Knight themed.

* Black-red cares about Knights and Equipment.

* White-black is the slowest of the Knight decks. It wants to have a long game and trade resources frequently.

* Red-green cares about your creatures not being Humans. Cards will get bonuses when non-Humans enter the battlefield or are in play.

* Green-blue wants to ramp and use as much mana as possible. Food and Adventure are both natural mana sinks for green-blue to use.

* Green-white is the main Adventure color pair. It has the highest density of Adventure creatures and rewards for adventuring.

But wait. It seems that I forgot to talk about the blue-black archetype. The blue-black archetype in Throne of Eldraine is about getting cards in graveyards. Both graveyards. Cards will upgrade if your opponent has a stocked graveyard, and this deck will have access to getting back cards from its graveyard.